Assistant Professor

JMA’s research career has produced so far 41 peer-reviewed articles. Including 3 Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., 2 ACS Nano, 1 Chem. Sci., 1 ACS Catalisys, 6 Chem. Commun. 4 Chem. Eur. J. or 2 Org. Lett., among others. He has also communicated his scientific results through 10 contributions to international congresses, and 8 seminars/conferences in different research centres. He has so far participated in 10 research projects, including Spanish national, UK national, or 7th framework UE program funded projects, being awarded with diverse competitive grants such as MEC-Colaboración, UCM-FPU, or a MEC-postdoctoral fellowship. The quality of his work is proved by an H index of 21, with > 900 citations and 32 articles in the first quartile. His professional background also includes teaching activities in the context of different grades (chemistry, biology or biochemistry), MSc and BSc direction and supervision, and industrial experience in polymer and environmental chemistry. At the early stages of his scientific career, JMA developed a strong basis in organic synthesis, firstly focused in alcaloid and peptidomimetic chemistry. Also, he developed a wide expertise in transition metal catalysis during his MSc and PhD under the supervision of Prof Alcaide and Prof Almendros at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid, in particular studying the catalytic activity of Ru complexes for the deprotection of allyl amines and amides. The quality of the work was awarded with the prize for the best Doctoral Thesis. JMA’s expertise in transition metal-catalysed reactions was improved from a multidisciplinary approach during two different postdoctoral stays in The Aryne Chemistry Group at the Universidad de Santiago de Compostela under the supervision of Prof Guitian and Prof Peña. The use of Au and Cu surfaces and tip-induced voltage excitation allowed the single-molecule generation of acenes, building a new bridge in between the traditional homogeneous and heterogeneous catalysis. The work performed during that period has also been cited in Synfacts or Anales de Química RSEQ journals. Following his postdoctoral career, he then moved back to Universidad Complutense de Madrid to re-join the group of Prof Alcaide and Prof Almendros to get a deeper knowledge in homogeneous metal-catalysed reactions and the study of cyclisation and tandem processes in allene chemistry. In 2015, JMA joined Dr Muñoz group at University of East Anglia (UK) working on transition metal-catalysed reactions on polyallenic systems. His robust training has led to the successful development of a novel Pt-Au hybrid catalysis methodology, leading to unreported bis(indollyl)methane and related structures, showing promising antibiotic properties, and a new methodology for the 1,3-double nucleophilic addition to allenes, to yield the recurring 1,3-bisazole scaffold, present in many metal complexes and molecular organic frameworks. During the last year and prior to his current position he has been a member of the Laboratorio de Química Médica in IQOG-CSIC, developing new synthetic routes to get access to novel structures with higher activity against neurodegenerative diseases. The sceintific career of JMA continues with a first academic position as Profesor Ayudante Doctor (Assistant Professor) at Universidad de Alcalá (Madrid, Spain) where he expanded his investigation in the field of medicinal Chemistry. JMA currently holds a position as Profesor Ayudante Doctor at Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Spain, at the Organic Chemistry Department.